NICK Faldo may be one of the game’s great players but Graeme Storm was less than impressed with the six-time Major winner on the eve of the Open Championship.

Storm played with triple Open winner Faldo in practice at Carnoustie yesterday, along with Justin Rose and Nick Dougherty, but the 29-year-old French Open champion from Hartlepool was clearly unhappy with Europe’s next Ryder Cup and Seve Trophy captain.

“To be honest, I was disappointed with Faldo and I would have thought he would have been a bit more approachable,” said Storm. “He’s written an article saying that the young British are too friendly and that they need to go about things a bit more differently, and that’s why he and Seve (Ballesteros) won Majors and we haven’t.

“I just think that with Justin and Nick and myself, I expected a bit more from him. Justin is playing well and is one of the favourites and it would have been nice to see him give Justin that little bit of advice that might help him win the tournament. If he did, I didn’t see it. He very rarely gave out any advice. He could have been a bit more approachable.”

Faldo was noted for his single-minded approach which brought him three Masters titles and three Open Championships, but he made few friends among the players with his perceived selfish attitude – although he was always popular with the fans and no one could question his commitment or application. Since he stepped back from playing, Faldo has been on a charm offensive with the media and everyone else, especially since his appointment as Ryder Cup captain.

“I think Nick only wants to be helpful when it’s good for Nick and I think that’s a shame,” said Storm. “He’s captain of the Seve Trophy this year and I’m quite close to getting into that and I thought that, if I played with him today, I’d see what he was like. I hope I can get in the team now because it will be interesting to see how different he is with me and I have a feeling he will be. I hope to play with Sergio Garcia in practice tomorrow because that will be a lot more fun!”

Having been out with Faldo, Rose and Dougherty, Storm was putting in more on the range yesterday afternoon and he said: “My main target is a top 10 finish. It would be the dream of dreams to win it, but I’m here to compete and do as well as I can and top 10 is the target. I’ve won this season so it’s not beyond me.”

Storm is also well versed in playing on links, winning the British Amateur at Royal County Down in 1999 and at Nairn, where he holed the winning putt against the USA in the Walker Cup the same year – and he learned his trade over Hartlepool’s fairways and at Seaton Carew, a classic links course. He admitted he will take those experiences into tomorrow’s first round.

“I do like links golf and I have a feel for it and the course here is set up very fair. I don’t think Tiger (Woods) has as much an advantage as he normally has. Okay, he can hit shots some of us can’t and he is the favourite, but I have a feeling someone else will win this week.

“Anything can happen and as long as I play four days and compete for four days I’ll be really happy with that. I have had a long run of tournaments and I’m a bit overgolfed to be honest. Sponsors and tournament organisers do want you to turn out as French Open Champion and I do like to play and play often, but I may have take a rest soon. However, I am in decent form and I’ve had a great month and there’s no reason why that can’t continue.”